ABC News' Jake "The Octogon" Tapper thinks NBC News is totally "slimy" for their gross and "insulting" reporting during South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's disappearance. The nerve of those guys, suggesting that something untoward was going on!

South Carolina's The State has once again put the state's open records law to excellent use by getting a hold of more obsequious e-mails from exclusive-hungry reporters to Sanford's press secretary during his disappearance, including a doozy from ABC News' Jake Tapper (click the image for a closer look):

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At the time, no one knew exactly where Sanford was, and the Argentinian Connection had not yet been revealed. Tapper was engaging in the age-old reporters' practice of trashing the competition to official gatekeepers in the hopes that said gatekeepers will be goaded into believing that you are "on their side" and and will therefore be the best choice for their client/principal to talk to. Needless to say, the only side Tapper was on is his own. Never believe anything a reporter ever says to you.

The "slimy" spot in question did little else aside from report (gullibly) Sanford's staff's contention that the governor was hiking the Appalachian Trail, recount the previous conflicting explanations for his absence, and raise perfectly reasonable questions—questions that we're sure Tapper himself had—about Sanford's political prospects in light of his strange behavior. There was nothing "insulting" about it.

Tapper followed up with another e-mail, tattling on NBC News's David Gregory for writing about Sanford on Twitter:

Busted. In retrospect, the story I was referring to wasn't slimy enough — at that moment the only ones who knew of the governor's affair were Sanford, his wife, his mistress, and the State newspaper. But I shouldn't have said that, and I'll try to leave the media criticism to others from now on.

Good idea! We've e-mailed Mike Viqueira, the NBC News reporter whose spot Tapper trashed, for comment. We were all like, "Tapper's a total tool, I can't believe what he wrote about you! You should totally respond to Gawker. Also-FYI!—he's Tweeting about it. Slimy!" We'll let you know if we hear back.